During last night's rune class, it really struck me how different the runes are in the Florida context than from the Scandinavian/Ancient German context.
Nauthiz - the need fire - when describing how it echoes the need for fire when you are freezing cold, Phoenix was like, "I'm Floridian, I don't know what that's like."
Which led to a fascinating side track trying to translate Need - Nauthiz - into the Florida setting. What we came up with was this:
Imagine a hurricane has just blown through. You have no power. It's 100 degrees outside. Extremely humid. You are on your very last water bottle. Your hands are so sweaty you can barely get the top off. How badly are you going to want this water?
Then came Isa. Ice. Like a freezie! Ravenwolf said at once. And I felt I had to say, not that kind of ice.
But, could it be? Ice, in South Florida, is usually a wonderful thing. It is a freezie or slushie or ice cream cone on a very hot summer day. It is the air conditioning that makes living here bearable.
The weather patterns we dread most are extreme heat, and hurricanes. Hurricanes, I figure, belong to Hagalaz. Hagalaz is a complex rune. The 9th rune, and 9 is a number of great power. It belongs to Hel, references the 9 days it takes to ride the Hel Road into the afterlife, the number of days Odin hung on Yggdrasil to obtain the runes, and the nine worlds.
So how is Hagalaz like a Hurricane? A hurricane is both beneficial and destructive, it carries the water and wind needed for the plants native to South Florida, but also can be destructive with the wind and water and storm. Hagalaz is a rune which can be destructive, because it signifies change and turbulence, but in those changes also comes opportunity. So, Hagalaz = Hurricane Rune.
Heat, the burning furnace of the Sun, is symbolized by Sowilo. Sowilo would then be as much a rune of danger and destruction here as Isa is in the far north. Something to think about. Would you call upon Isa to cool you down on an August Day? May have to try that this summer.
Blessed Be.
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